For those of us who live on the East Coast, road trips up and down Interstate 95 were simply a part of growing up. Like most people I know, my family and I spent hours in the car traveling South towards Florida to visit family or North towards Maine … also to visit family.
On those trips southwards from New York, there was always one stop I looked forward to: South of the Border. Part theme park, part restaurant, part casino, and part hotel, the facility is considered the traditional halfway point between New York and Florida, where families could hop off I-95 for a quick bite, some souvenirs, and entertainment before getting back on the road.
While South of the Border isn’t as relevant to the public as it once was, it still holds a place in my heart, and I always make sure to stop there whenever I pass by. That’s why I’m sad to report that the on-site taco restaurant, Burrito Loco, burned to the ground on Sunday night.
Here’s What Happened
According to the Dillon County Fire Station, firefighters first responded to a commercial structure fire at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday. Crews worked for two hours to extinguish the blaze and left the scene once they thought the flames were subdued. They were called back later that night because the flames reignited, and they worked for another four hours to put out the fire for good. By then, the restaurant, which was not occupied at the time, was nothing more than a skeleton of itself. From Facebook:
For someone who’s personally spent time in this restaurant and all of the facilities around it, this hurts. I made memories with my family here as a kid, and then later with my friends as an adult. To see it ripped to shreds in a fire makes me incredibly sad. Piling onto the sadness is that the building was about to be occupied by a new lessee, but there was no insurance on the building at the time of the fire, according to Dillon County News & Beyond. That means if South of the Border wants to rebuild, it’ll have to do so out of its own pocket.
On the bright side, it seems the rest of the facility was unharmed. The gas station next door seems to be untouched, while photos from the scene published by the fire department show the classic sombrero tower and the colorful neon “South of the Border” sign a safe distance away. So at least there’s that.
Why South of the Border Is So Cool
South of the Border started in 1949 as a simple beer stand, founded by one Alan Schafer. The name was a play on its location, as it was located in Hamer, South Carolina, directly bordering the North Carolina state line. It was more than just a clever joke—the counties north of the border were dry counties, meaning Schafer got lots of business from folks who couldn’t buy alcohol in their local nearby towns.
Business boomed, and soon, Schafer added a 10-seat grill for diners and renamed the spot South of the Border Drive-In. By 1954, he had built 20 motel rooms. In 1962, Schafer started selling fireworks—something that was also illegal just north of the border. Solidifying its iconic status was the announcement in 1964 that I-95 would be built just feet away from the facility’s entrance, opening up business opportunities considerably.
Leaning into the Mexican-themed name, he imported trinkets from Mexico and came up with a 104-foot-tall mascot named Pedro. At its peak, South of the Border had a theme park, a mini-golf course, a barber shop, a drug store, a post office, a convention center, and an outdoor go-kart track. While it marketed itself as a stop along the way to your true destination, for many, the facility itself was the destination.
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In some ways, South of the Border is a shell of what it once was. The only attractions that remain open are the arcade, the reptile house, and the Sombrero Observation Tower. Back in December, the facility listed 30 acres of land for sale, including the defunct theme park, mini golf course, motel building, and convention center, with an asking price of $2.85 million. There are still a few restaurants and souvenir stores on-site, but the main draw is Fort Pedro Fireworks, as most fireworks are still illegal just across the border.
Despite all that, South of the Border remains near and dear to my heart. It’s one of those places that drives nostalgia into my heart when I visit, and forces my brain to consider going on yet another road trip down the East Coast, even if I don’t have a good reason to. So I hope this is the last bad news I ever hear about it.
Top graphic image:Dillon County FD
Similar in concept to the Uranus Fudge Factory, in Missouri. https://www.uranusgeneralstore.com/
The best fudge come from Uranus.
Wall Drug “There can be only one”
I should visit the Iowa 80 sometime soon. Never know what you’re missing until it’s gone.
Some years ago I visited the Octave Chanute Air Museum in Rantoul. The collection there was impressive, even if the outdoor planes were a bit rough; most of the time stuff like that is. I was ready to take my niece and nephews down not long after that visit when I looked it up and found they’d permanently closed. Most of the planes – other than a particularly large turboprop transport – have found homes elsewhere, which is good, but it’s still a bummer.
Hope they can return in a better and nicer way, and don’t become just another big chain place. If not, hope the reptiles find good homes.
Never been, but my parents also refused to road trip south of NJ it seems. We were sort of confined to the Northeast.
Having SOB stuff typically meant that your family was part of the massive legion of folks that drove to Myrtle Beach for April break. Especially in the 90s, half the damn town would disappear to Myrtle for that week.
I have never been there, and never had an interest in going once I got past middle school.
All the “cool kids” AKA the cliquey, snotty ones who sneered at us mere mortals, had SOTB gear, and having been ostracized by them already, I never built up the courage to ask anyone what it referred to. If I had known it was just another roadside attraction, I might have been able to disregard their snobbishness at an earlier age. Once I did discover what it meant, it pulled the scales off my eyes and washed away a fair portion of their mystique. Maybe I could have had different relationships with a clearer view. We’ll never know.
Too bad about the restaurant. I imagine they’ll rebuild, though maybe not. The whole thing looks kind of cheesy and it’s losing market share to – shudder – Buc-ee’s.
On one hand, I lament the fact that so many simple forms of entertainment in this country are being displaced by stupid stuff. There was a mini-golf and go kart track near me. Sold and turned into an office complex once they demolished the entire thing.
Nobody builds fun stuff anymore. When is the last time you’ve heard of a new amusement park being built? A new water park? They get torn down (RIP Geauga Lake) and turned into something that is lame.
On the other hand, this place was born out of a perhaps misguided sense of cultural nonsense. I stopped here and it’s like what a 1950s person from the area might think Mexico looks like. Lazy sleeping people wearing giant sombreros, big noses, handlebar mustaches, grotesque characitures of Mexico and Mexican people. One might say that it is from a different time, but the world has since moved on. The place could have kept up a little and still maintained a fun theme of Mexico.
Sadly, the entire thing felt like it was just a ghost of the past. So much of it is abandoned or falling apart, clearly neglected with the passage of time. I’m not sure if it was just one of those things that was not possible to sustain over time or what, but I dislike when artifacts of a more fun past are left to rot, even if culturally misguided.
Instead of shipping cheap faux-Mexican souveniers from China to sell, get some actual Mexicans (gasp) in to start an art center. Make stuff on-site to sell. Instead of that gross restaurant, have actual real Mexican food that tastes good instead of just selling Sysco roadside slop. Blend in the fun of silly things like a go-kart track, arcade, etc with a little actual culture.
Either that or just let it continue to rot and eventually it will be paved over for yet another stupid gas station like a Bucees or Sheetz that people have been tricked into thinking is somehow fun or good. They’re gas stations y’all. You get gas, take a dump and go somewhere fun. Gas stations are not the destination and I will never be tricked into believing they are somehow good or fun.
Don’t believe the hype and marketing wank.
There is a commercial real-estate, zoning, and market term “highest and best use.” Sadly, the “fun stuff” is often just interim uses or “land banking” to wait for market increases so you can do something more productive and profitable. There’s many reasons why go-cart tracks and mini-golf aren’t really a thing in cities. WRT the SotB site, I don’t get the whole Buc-ee’s thing, but given the location maybe they should just buy the whole mess, scrape it, and build a store. (Update: quick search shows one in Florence already, not that far, so maybe that’s a missed opportunity to intro the Buc-ee’s craze to East Coast travellers.)
It’s not all bad! Sure, the cart tracks, roller rinks, minigolf courses, bowling alleys, and arcades of our youth have disappeared and have been replaced by higher-dollar entertainment, but there’s plenty of fun stuff to do. They just built a Woodward near me and my kids love it. Top Golf, iFLY, trampoline parks, laser tag, etc have proliferated pretty widely in the last few decades. Different format, higher cost, but the same general category.
I think the economics of water parks just don’t work anymore, with huge land and maintenance requirements and a short season. I share your sadness about that.
I also agree that the cultural misappropriation of a place like SOTB does look ridiculous through modern eyes, and I’m glad the world is moving on from that kind of ridiculousness. Say what you will about Buc-ee’s, but it’s hard to imagine a more culturally honest American institution lol.
I’m with you, and it’s all cultural – not just Mexican, but American too. We build, then forget. Forget to maintain, upkeep and update.
As American cultural awareness evolved, SOTB could have evolved to appreciate more than just the stereotypes. Fold some of the profits back into the operation to keep the place up with the times – rather than just the usual Mexican stereotype chotchkes, actual Mexican products, preferably made by actual Mexicans in Mexico. And not just chotchkes, though honestly I’m not sure where the line is drawn on stuff that is objets decor vs. knicknacks. I confess my ignorance on that score, I’m not big on chotchkes or, frankly, decor.
It’s my perception that, culturally, Americans aren’t great at maintenance. We buy and use up: bridges, appliances, roadside attractions. Then tear down and build something else. Throw away the old and replace with new, which will then be used up and tossed as well. I think if we could spend a bit more at the outset to build in maintainability, we’d enjoy somewhat lower profits and a longer breakeven in exchange for a hugely extended ROI and overall satisfaction with performance. Imagine a place like SOTB with (just guessing since I’ve never been there) the place divided up into like 12 physical divisions, and any given month one of which is at some reduced or closed-off capacity for extended maintenance, repairs and upgrades. You’re always at 92% functionality, but always have the opportunity to be evolving the space to maintain its currency. And while what SOTB may have considered okay in the 1950s is frankly offensive in the 2020s, under that model it would be constantly reexamining itself to ensure that it never became offensive, stayed culturally aware and relevant.
Haven’t probably been here in 10 years. Only been 3 times. Billboards from 100 miles away. The excitement building as you get closer….
Was sorta crap once you got there, but it was fun for a kid. Hopefully they can get some sweet sweet insurance payouts (unlikely I know) and build it back better.
The reptile house is actually pretty awesome. We went a few years ago. The black mamba was feeling especially energetic when we went, and was continually probing for ways to escape. That thing stood up 3-4 feet inside its enclosure! They had quite the variety.
I’ve weirdly never been inside the reptile house—next time I’m there, it’s certainly on the list
I remember going here as a kid, and for some reason the YouTube algorithm has given me south of the border content recently too. Seems a little sus? I kid. Anyway, my parents surprised us with a road trip to Didney Worl over spring break when I was in 4th or 5th grade. They told us we were going to an estate sale, had us get in the car, we realized the car was packed, and all hell broke loose.
My sister had a multi-hour tantrum because she didn’t want to be in the car that long. Anyway, we passed south of the border on the way down and all the neon and caricatures of Mexicans appealed to us as a bunch of kids. Naturally we asked to stop at once. Dad refused in a very dad fashion, but we somehow convinced him to on our return trip.
I was so excited, but man was it rough around the edges even back then (I think 2000ish?). I remember it being dirty as hell, the gift shop having weirdly ominous vibes, and my mother talking about how someone was violently vomiting in the bathroom. I think I got a comb that worked like a pocket knife, or at least looked at one?
There was also a mini train track back then, although I don’t think it was running. Anyway, on one hand it’s a pretty grotesque monument to capitalism…but on the other it’s a kitschy little piece of old school road trip Americana, and I have no choice but to begrudgingly respect it.
I’m just glad it wasn’t the reptile house. I feared the worst ’til I read down the page here.
Why couldn’t it have been Breezewood? More proof there is no god.
Breezewood, Pennsylvania. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.*
*This side of Pittsburgh.
SOB was never “part casino”. At one point, it was part strip club, as there was a building right on the border that housed a gentlemen’s establishment. I never saw it actually open in my three stops at SOB.
This is amazing. I can only imagine the cartoon iconography it must have had, given what the family-friendly establishment stuff looks like.
The building was black, with some pink and purple neon on the outside, I never saw the interior. I want to say it was the building that is now marked as “Bargain Ben’s Big Bargain Outlet”
I guess all of this means I should remove the SOB sticker from the rear bumper of my Bentley?
We just drove by there last week! Wow!
Nothing can top watching the Embers Motor Lodge burn down from I-40 though. I bore it no ill will, it’s just the poetic justice (? this is not the right term, but it’s not irony either) was too rich.
https://alamancenews.com/sun-morning-fire-guts-embers-motel-in-graham/
Despite passing it countless times on our way to Disney from NY when I was a kid, my parents never let us stop there because my parents were cheap bastards. They always did the drive straight through, and until they got the minivan in 1986, it was in cars without A/C. Five people in a car with no A/C for 24 hours is just miserable.
We did get to enjoy the punny billboards at least.
As a kid, every three years we drove from New York down to Florida to visit grandparents. One of the highlights was that along with all the other road games (spot license plates from different states, etc.), we could watch for the South Of The Border Signs that began way way way before the place. All those signs with Mexican character stereotypes, which I knew nothing about until then.
We went in once, and I remember only two things. One, we ate at a restaurant there, and my Dad was pretty pissed at how expensive it was while you were captive there, and my dad rarely got pissed. Two, when we came back to the car they had attached a SotB bumper sticker to the bumper. Thankfully it wasn’t an actual sticker, it was a piece of cardboard with four holes, held on by baling wire around the bumper. Again, Dad was pissed, and Dad rarely got pissed.
The one time we were driving in that part of the country, I went out of my way to take the family there, just because my parents had taken me there in the 80s.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
I always heard it was called Pedro s South of the Border. I still remember leaving WPB Florida at 8am driving north to Pennsylvania stopping here for gas wearing my Florida together t shirt and shorts around 9pm and it was snowing. The clerk thought I was some Alaska mountain man as he didn’t notice I was buying a carton of cigarettes that came with a free sweatshirt and it was cheaper than buying a sweatshirt by itself. I made it to Derry PA around 4 am the next morning.
Even in its heyday… the billboards along 95 were always far more entertaining and enjoyable than the place itself.
A couple of billboards say “shalom!” in Hebrew style lettering, some are in French, and some in Spanish.
They leave no stone unturned when it comes to business development.
The best part, aside from the near-Simpsons-esq presentation of the whole thing, is the motel.
It’s literally an original, 50s style “motor hotel” that has individual car parking spots adjacent to every room. You pull into the portico, get out, and you’re at your door. So cool.
halfway point between New York and Florida, where families could hop off I-95
I’ve driven by the place a couple times a year on my annual migrations to ME and back for a decade. Finally stopped about four years ago. It was rather sad. And now the Buccee’s that opened just a couple miles south has absolutely killed the place. Absolute dead zone when I have driven by ever since, barely a car in the parking lot.
Love the punny signs though.
Cheap flights can’t have helped. I have family in Florida and have thought about the road trip but that slams against the reality of less than $400 airfare BTV-MCO direct, round trip.
It’s still right on one of the busiest parts of I-95. Buc-ee’s was the final nail in the coffin. That place is batshit insane, and shiny and new, and really, just a better experience all around, if not so quirky and varied. South of the Border was just a relic of a bygone era, and has been old and tired for decades.
For some reason I thought it had already burnt down. The last time I stopped probably a decade ago it was in such decline I wondered how it stayed open. Even a decade prior to that I wondered how it was staying open. Fireworks , curiosity and tradition had to be the only thing keeping it around.
I stopped there in the mid ’80s on the way to Florida for my job, and it was looking a bit sad in those days. But all those signs for miles and miles along the highway sure were entertaining!
My family once made the trip from PA to Florida on the Auto Train if that still exists maybe a story idea.
That place has been having issues for decades, my Spidey senses point to arson and insurance fraud.
This building was apparently uninsured, though
And having eaten there once, I can only imagine the decades long build up of cooking grease in the kitchen. Gordon Ramsay would definitely be pissed.
“You cook like a DONKEY!”
You mailed that insurance check, right Gob?
Maybe Hermano intercepted it
RIF it was uninsured. Pretty hard to rip off the non existent insurance company.
There’s at least one bad Mexican pun per mile through the Carolinas on their I-95 billboards. Didn’t know the reptile house was still open! Gotta stop next time.